Dutch make Europol chief an early priority

THE Dutch presidency of the EU is to embark on a round of bilateral talks with France, Germany and Italy to end a stand-off over who should head Europol.

European Voice

6/30/04, 5:00 PM CET

Updated 4/12/14, 10:19 AM CET

All three states are eager that one of their nationals should land the top job in the Union’s police agency, at a time when its role in the fight against terrorism is to expand.

But Ireland, whose six-month stint at the EU’s helm ended this week, was unable to broker an agreement that would end the wrangling between the three by a 28 June deadline.

Paris has been adamant that its candidate Jacques Franquet, the director of international police cooperation for the French force, should take the post. Berlin has campaigned vigorously for outgoing Europol Director Jürgen Storbeck to be reappointed, while Rome is backing senior Italian police officer Emanuele Marotta.

Finding a solution has been made all the more difficult by the requirement that the appointee has the unanimous support of EU governments.

A Dutch diplomat said The Hague is “still trying to see what scenarios” exist and would be engaging in consultations with other national capitals about the matter, likely to be high on the agenda of the meeting of EU justice and home affairs ministers scheduled for 19 July.

Asked whether the Netherlands would seek to open up the contest to allow the ten new member states to field candidates, the diplomat replied: “Everything is possible.”

The present deputy director at Europol Mariano Simancas is to take charge of the day-to-day running of the agency until a deal can be thrashed out.